1. Field of Use
This invention relates generally to a method for manufacturing a track carrier roller or track idler for use with continuous tracks on crawler tractors or the like and having an interior lubrication cavity therein. In particular, it relates to a method for providing a solidified mass of open cell foam material in said lubrication cavity and for saturating said mass with lubricant for the bearings associated with such rollers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Track carrier rollers or track idlers often are manufactured by welding together two castings, each of which has a portion of a lubrication cavity and lubrication passages cast or machined therein. When joined together the two castings define an enclosed lubrication cavity which is adapted to have a lubricant such as oil or grease pumped therethrough through a lubrication port formed in one of the castings. During the manufacturing process, contaminants resulting from welding, heat treating and machining accumulate in the cavity and are transported therefrom along with the lubricant through the lubrication passages to the bearings and bearing seals where they can damage the latter.
One prior art patent discloses a crawler tractor having cylindrical rollers carried by pins which rollers engage the sprocket. These rollers have cavities which are filled with compacted waste material and a lubricant. The roller construction disclosed in the aforesaid patent, however, while somewhat suggestive of a means for retaining a lubricant in the interior cavity of a roller does not present the problem of weld particles or other contaminants resulting from the manufacturing process since the roller is not fabricated from sections joined by welding so as to define a relatively inaccessible cavity.